One of the early pioneers of independent television has died after a long battle against cancer.

Eric Flackfield, 78, lived in Hove with Joanna, his wife of 37 years.

He was a dedicated supporter of sport for the young and, with the Sussex Region of the Lords Taverners, helped raise hundreds of thousands of pounds for the needy.

Mr Flackfield served as a tank commander in the Second World War.

He continued his Army career after the war, serving as a Captain in administration at Northern Command based in York.

On leaving the Army, he joined the Rediffusion Group in 1954 as a trainee sales executive at the time ITV was about to start.

Mr Flackfield waited until 1959 before joining the fledgling ABC Television as personal assistant to managing director Howard Thomas.

He worked alongside many TV moguls, including Lew Grade, the Bernsteins and Rupert Murdoch.

Passionate about sport, he served on the joint BBC-ITV committee which arranged coverage of the 1966 World Cup.

The following year, he joined London Weekend Television as controller of programme planning and helped get the new company off the ground.

Mr Flackfield was with LWT for 14 years and helped steer it through difficult times, including a long strike by cameramen and engineers in 1979.

He left LWT in 1982 after being asked by Jeremy Isaacs to join Channel 4 when it was launched.

Mr Flackfield retired two years later and moved to Hove, where he worked tirelessly for the Lords Taverners. He was chairman from 1998-2000.

Final respects have also been paid to a veteran marathon runner who raised thousands of pounds for charity, despite being confined to a wheelchair.

More than 70 mourners attended the funeral on Wednesday of Bill Bailey, who died, aged 87, at Polegate Nursing Home in Black Path.

Mr Bailey had lived at the home since 1997, when he had a stroke while preparing for a marathon.

He was a prodigious fund-raiser who, until his stroke, would often beat men half his age in veterans' running events.

Mr Bailey was a familiar figure at the Hastings half- marathon and was pushed round the course by nursing-home staff after becoming confined to a wheelchair.

Eric Hardwick, director of the Hastings half-marathon, said: "It's a loss to us all. It's going to be very difficult to find anyone of his ilk again."

Mr Bailey once told The Argus: "I was in the Navy for many years and that showed me a lot of the world. Running did the same."

Though Mr Bailey thought athletics had become too money-orientated, he still believed their was room for gentlemen in a sport populated by professionals.

He said: "I've met all the greats and I've raced against a few of them. There is still a sense of humour among competitors, despite the huge sums of money involved."

Polegate Nursing Home manager Jackie Taylor said: "He was a genuine man who spent all his life raising thousands of pounds for charity.

"He was such a character that you couldn't go round Polegate without people coming up to you asking how Bill was.

Mr Bailey leaves a widow, Yvonne, 58, son Marc, 34, and daughters Natasha, 24, and Anna, 20.